The Reception of the Dictionaries Compiled by the ALLEX Project and ALRI

Abstract

This article examines the reception of the African Languages Lexical (ALLEX) Project and the African Languages Research Institute's (ALRI) dictionaries by the target users. It assesses the target users' ownership, awareness, knowledge, and use of the dictionaries. Thus, the study seeks to gauge the dictionary culture of the primary target users of the dictionaries under study. The findings of the study demonstrate that since the publication of the dictionaries, the dictionary culture of the target users has not changed much. Most of the target users do not own the dictionaries and do not use them. The dictionaries are also not prescribed as key reference materials or tools in the basic education sector or as tools of the trade for language mediators in courts, parliament, or media. There is also no curriculum for the teaching of dictionary skills and imparting dictionary culture in the Zimbabwean basic education system. The findings of this study further highlight the prevailing misconception that in African speech communities, dictionary assistance is not required in one's mother tongue. Keywords: reception, ALLEX, ALRI, dictionary, University of Zimbabwe, sales records, dictionary culture, dictionary pedagogy, educational policy on dictionaries, ownership